Reborn As Noble

Garius smirked. ”Rasdingen may drink like a fool, but he’s loyal to the end.”

He turned back to Javier. ”Still... despite Rasdingen’s rejection, Kimar’s side hasn’t stopped. I want your full assessment. How far along are they?”

Javier rubbed his chin, brows furrowed.

”Apologies, Esteemed Father. But as you already know, even if they’ve gathered skilled blacksmiths and mages, the gap isn’t something they can close easily.”

He tapped the side of the table with his finger, listing off calmly,

”To replicate a single component, say, a mana rifle, you need specialized mechanisms. Cylinders for pressure control. Springs for firing and recoil. Proper insulation for the barrel. Sealing rings to contain mana leaks. Cooling systems. All of that housed in a precisely machined frame.”

He looked at Garius.

”These aren’t things that can be made with old-style hammer and forge. No matter how skilled the blacksmith is, it’s not enough. What they’re missing, what none of them can replicate, is the machinery behind it... or in my case, the crafting method.”

Marcellus narrowed his eyes. ”You mean your magic crafting?”

Javier nodded.

”Yes. Without my technique, they can’t mold the frame to the micron. Can’t mix materials the way I do. A normal forge can’t combine mithril with copper, then insulate it with mana-woven quartz fibers inside the barrel. They’d either crack it during firing or explode and damage the user.”

Garius leaned back, arms crossed. ”So their only option is to experiment blindly.”

”Yes,” Javier confirmed. ”And even then, if they somehow manage to make a prototype... it’ll explode in their face before they can test it properly.”

Garius leaned forward, fingers steepled as his sharp eyes studied Javier.

”What about your other thing? The battle drone?”

Javier sighed and took the report Alf had distributed, giving it a brief glance before tossing it back onto the table.

”They don’t have the foundation.”

”Let’s start with the flight system,” Javier continued, resting his fingertips on the table.

”They don’t understand lift, rotation, airflow control, or even balance calculations. That alone makes flight impossible.”

Cedric leaned forward. ”But they could still copy the shape, right? Maybe guess the angles?”

”It’s not that simple,” Javier shook his head.

”Even if they copy the shape, without the core knowledge, the drone won’t stabilize. It’ll either flip mid-air or crash within seconds. The blades and wings are built based on principles they don’t even know exist. No one here teaches it, and they don’t even have the word for ’aerodynamics’ in their textbooks.”

He paused, letting it sink in.

”And it’s not just the physical shape. There’s an entire layer of design underneath, magical equivalents of transistors, microscopic enchantment plates, spell compression nodes, and self-correcting stabilizers. Even if they built a perfect replica of the frame, they’d never get it off the ground, much less keep it in the air.”

”For drones to work, you need things like micro-actuated servos, in our case, enchantment arrays thinner than a strand of hair, paired with responsive magic logic. That means the frame can react, shift balance, recover from wind or spells. None of them even know how to spell ’algorithm’, let alone code one.”

Garius gave a slow, thoughtful nod. ”And the core?”

Javier drummed his fingers once.

”That’s the real wall. The mana core isn’t just a battery, it’s everything. Control, storage, logic, power, all stacked together. The inside’s layered with circuit arrays, spell sequences that act like coded instructions. But the way I write those spells? No one else can read or reproduce them. It’s not ancient runes, not academy magic. It’s... original.”

He leaned back, eyes half-closed.

”They’d have to invent a whole new branch of magic, learn an unknown language, and reinvent how to blend tech with spellcraft from scratch. Otherwise, even if they build something that looks right, it’ll never actually fly.”

Javier continued, voice even.

”And from what I’ve observed, they’ve been trying to make new magic weapons. Their first attempt was the cannon.”

He shook his head, lips curling into a faint smirk.

”But since they don’t understand how ours actually works, they tried combining it with gunpowder, and borrowed ideas from our old mana bombs.”

Garius’s eyes glinted with quiet amusement.

”Ah...the modified mana crystal. The kind that explodes when you channel mana and toss it in the air... and detonates on impact.”

”Yes, esteemed Father. But their problem is simple: they have to load everything by hand, gunpowder, mana crystal, the whole lot. Like the oldest field cannons. It’s slow, clumsy, and the aim depends entirely on the gunner’s eyesight and guesswork. If they misjudge the angle or wind, the shot misses.”

Javier exhaled, voice edged with a hint of frustration.

”I really don’t understand why they keep trying to challenge Armand. All we want is stability and peace, but they keep pushing for confrontation.”

Garius let out a soft, dry chuckle.

”That’s just Kimar for you. It’s why I never voted for him to become king, back when we were merely nobles. He was always brash and short-sighted.”

Javier’s gaze turned serious again.

”Even if, by some miracle, they manage to build those cannons in large numbers, it’s pointless. My anti-air mana guns aren’t just for air defense, they’re programmed to target any threat, whether it’s flying or approaching on the ground. The system is fully autonomous. It tracks and shoots down anything hostile within the protected area.”

He rubbed his chin, a thoughtful glint in his eyes.

”And with the new mana cannon, there’s no need for reloading. It just compresses mana and fires. There’s no barrel to crack, no powder to ignite. The whole thing is self-sealing, self-cooling, and it’ll keep firing as long as the relay towers are active.”

Garius studied him for a long moment.

”Are you certain they won’t become a threat?”

Javier nodded calmly.

”They are a threat, to peace, and to the safety of our people. But as long as both the Arjam Battlement and the Armand Border Battlement are fully equipped with my systems, I don’t believe they can confront us directly.”

He paused, then added evenly, ”What concerns me more is that they may be building these weapons to challenge other nations, especially our allies. And that’s something we won’t allow.”

Javier rested his hand on the table. ”Every Armand soldier now wears standardized Armand battle gear. Each set is fitted with auto-activating barrier runes. They respond instantly to incoming attacks, elemental, kinetic, physical, or mana-based.”

Cedric’s brow furrowed slightly. ”Auto-activating?”

( End Of Chapter )